Refresh Your Sweet Potatoes With Fried Eggs
The only complaint my husband, Daniel, has about my cooking is that every time I make something he loves, I never cook it again.
It’s not that I mean to never cook it again; it’s that I can’t help but wonder, what would happen if I stirred in a pinch of this or a drizzle of that? Would it make the dish brighter, fuller, tastier? To me, this tweaking is part of the fun, one of the main reasons I love to cook.
And so it went recently when I set out to make some coconut oil roasted sweet potatoes, a recipe I developed in 2011 and still regularly riff on.
Over the past decade, I’ve switched up the spices, added other vegetables, layered on sauces, proteins and herbs. As long as I didn’t mess with the bones of the recipe — the coconut oil, the sweet potatoes, the roasting temperature — I really couldn’t go wrong. The sweet potatoes would always end up richly flavoured and delicately crisp on the outside, velvety within.
That is, as long as I didn’t take the sweet potatoes out of the oven early.
As Steven D, a reader, wrote in the notes of the original recipe online at New York Times Cooking, “The potatoes are soft after a half-hour or so, but then the crusts harden in the second half-hour, giving them the delicious texture that makes the dish unique.”
The last time I made this dish, I wanted to serve it as a main course rather than as a side. So I took the well-trodden path of putting an egg on top — in this case, fried in coconut oil until the edges ruffled and crisped, turning brittle and brown.
Of course, thinking about fried eggs made me crave a side of bacon. But since I wanted to go meatless, I approximated bacon’s brawniness with a dash of smoked paprika. It added complexity to the potatoes and gave a jolt of colour to the eggs right at the end, the deep red powder streaking orange in the yolks.
I also added chopped salted almonds for crunch and a creamy, garlicky yoghurt sauce to bring together the elements. It made for a wonderfully cosy, satisfying meal that I’ll probably never make again.
But you can make it as often as you like, tweaked to your heart’s content.
RECIPE: Smoky Sweet Potatoes With Eggs and Almonds
Ingredients:
3 tbsp coconut oil
900g sweet potatoes, peeled or unpeeled, and cut into 1cm chunks
¾ tsp fine sea or table salt, plus more as needed
¾ tsp garam masala, Baharat, curry powder or another spice mix
½ tsp smoked paprika, plus more as needed
¼ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed
3-5 thyme sprigs
½ cup plain Greek yoghurt
1 small garlic clove, finely grated, passed through a press or minced
Eggs, for frying, as many as you like
½ cup chopped Marcona or salted, roasted almonds
Soft herbs, such as parsley, mint or coriander, for serving
Preparation:
Step 1 Heat oven to 175C. Melt 2 tablespoons coconut oil in a small saucepan over low heat or in the microwave. In a large bowl, toss together sweet potatoes, melted coconut oil, salt, spice mix, smoked paprika, cumin, black pepper and thyme.
Step 2 Spread the potatoes in an even layer on a large rimmed baking sheet.
Step 3 Roast, stirring and flipping the potatoes occasionally, until soft and caramelised, about 1 hour.
Step 4 As the potatoes roast, place yoghurt in a small bowl. Stir in garlic, a large pinch or two of smoked paprika, and salt and black pepper to taste.
Step 5 In a large skillet, add remaining 1 tablespoon of coconut oil over medium-high heat and let it heat up for 20-30 seconds. Crack eggs into skillet and season with salt. Cook until the whites have set with crispy edges and the yolks are still runny, about 2-3 minutes (or cook the eggs for a few minutes longer for a medium or firm yolk, if you prefer).
Step 6 To serve, spoon sweet potatoes onto individual plates and top with yoghurt sauce and almonds. Place eggs on top, and sprinkle with paprika and herbs. Serve immediately.
Serves 2-3
Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
© 2024 The New York Times Company
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